Iona got out of bed with all the fury and joy of an 8-year-old.

An 8-year-old on her birthday.

An 8-year-old on her Unlocking Day!!!

The rest of her family groaned in the small hut they called home as Iona blazed through, and right out the door.

"I unlocked! I unlocked!" She cried out, excitement and joy radiating from every fiber of her being.

“Lunaris! Selene! Thank you!” Iona threw out a quick prayer, even though the moon goddesses had nothing to do with her System unlocking.

She ran past the longhouse that dominated the center of the village, the traveling skald sleeping off a hangover on the steps, then skidded to a halt in front of another hut, made out of wood, straw thatch on the roof, dried mud covering the cracks and not letting the chill breeze in. A hut that looked like any other in the village, but was special, not for how it was made, but for who lived in it.

"Lux! Lux! Come out here!" Iona called out. A few of the neighbors, already up and working, chuckled good-naturedly at the whirlwind made flesh excitedly bouncing around, remembering fondly the day when they’d unlocked the System, when magic became real and accessible for each of them.

A very sleepy-looking girl exited the house. Delicate features, mousey brown hair, and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes – it was clear she hadn’t slept a wink last night.

"Iona? Wu?" Lux said.

"I. Unlocked!!!" Iona said, emphasizing each word as carefully as she could. Lux’s eyes widened.

"You unlocked! Hurray! I need to unlock now! Any moment now…"

Lux screwed her eyes up and concentrated, seeing if she could get the last few hours out of the way by sheer force of will.

Nothing. The System wasn’t to be defeated by the will of a mere girl.

Iona rolled her eyes at Lux’s antics. She adored Lux – they were two peas in a pod, cut from the same cloth. Sure, she was distractible, needing Iona’s constant, steady hand to focus and stay on track, and was frankly bananas for bananas, but she provided a spark of curiosity, a burning inquisitive mind, and a creativity that Iona couldn’t match.

In short, they were perfect for each other, they complemented each other, covered each other.

"Anyways, anyways, what did you get? What did you get?" Lux said, having given up on bending the System to her will.

Iona quickly checked over her notifications for the hundredth time this morning.

"[Child of Lithos]!" She happily called out. "Level 7." She said, puffing her chest out. Bow before me, peasant! [High Jarl] Iona was here to rule with an iron fist!

"Wow! Did you put points into your stats yet?" Lux asked, wide-eyed.

Iona hesitated, then relented. They had no secrets. Bending over, whispering to her, she said,

"Well, yes. Everyone keeps saying Mana Regeneration is the best stat, and to put everything there. But I put my points into Dexterity and Strength. That way I can fight the people that bully you."

Lux gave her a hug, burying her face in Iona’s shirt.

"You didn’t have to." She said through the cloth.

Iona patted Lux’s back.

"Of course, I did! Come on, let’s go play in Terrabethia!"

That managed to distract Lux, not that it was an accomplishment worth bragging about. A butterfly could distract Lux from… anything really.

"Yeah, let’s go!"

Holding each other’s hand, they sprinted off to Terrabethia, their magical place. Soon to be even more magical with Iona having skills! And levels!

"Are you girls heading off to the old mine again?" The guard at the village exit asked them.

"Yup." Iona said, chin held high, defiantly.

The guard sighed, having lost this very same argument dozens of times already, not wanting to go through the wringer with the pair of scoundrels so early in the morning.

"Please be careful in there. It’s not safe."

Lux stuck her tongue out at the guard.

"Not safe for big fat adults maybe. Safe for quick girls! Come on Iona, let’s goooo!"

As they ran through the woods, up the hill, to the entrance of the old mine, Iona looked over the skills she was offered. Mom and Dad had given her some suggestions yesterday as to what skills she should take, and Iona suspected that once they were awake, they’d dictate what skills she’d take.

However, for a few, brief, glorious hours, Iona was free from parental tyranny, able to grab skills and allocate stats as she saw fit.

[Name: Iona]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 8]

[Mana: 40/40]

[Mana Regen: 825]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 20]

[Dexterity: 20]

[Vitality: 7]

[Speed: 11]

[Mana: 4]

[Mana Regeneration: 4]

[Magic Power: 4]

[Magic Control: 4]

Mana regen per day, because that looked cooler. Big numbers were better!

Frowning over her offered skills, she started off taking [Analyze], the classic skill for seeing what level someone was. Apparently, everyone had it, and everyone said it was a good idea. Iona was a free spirit, not inclined to listen too much to other people, but when that many people said the same thing? She’d be silly not to take it. It just made sense!

[Cute] was up next, because Iona was as cute as a button. Why not!

[Alert] was good for making sure no monsters or dinosaurs were sneaking up on them in the woods, and Lux would never be [Alert]. One of them had to be on guard for danger, and if it wasn’t going to be Lux, it had to be her.

[Walking] is what Iona spent way too much time doing, and the skill was tantalizing, promising an easier life, a way to get from A to B with less effort, using magic to fuel things. [Walking] away!

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Walking] has reached level 2!]

Levels already! Happy day! Iona jumped as much as she could with Lux holding onto her other hand.

Iona was tough, and [Tough] was an option. It’d help in the inevitable brawl as one of the older kids picked on Lux, and Iona would need to swoop in to save the day.

Speaking of needing to swoop in to save the day, it was inevitable that it’d end up in a bare-knuckle brawl, a hellion fight in the mud between Iona and whoever the most recent tormentor was. The System was a generous god, and had offered her [Brawling].

Yeah! Nobody would ever win against her again!

Although, unlocking marked a rite of passage, and fights between people who had their System unlocked and those who hadn’t was strongly discouraged, which would just make life harder. The older, bigger, stronger tormentors might be back to fighting, while the younger ones couldn’t be beaten up anymore. Iona was going from the top of the “hadn’t unlocked” kids, right to the bottom of the “have unlocked”.

Lux was a darling, and after each fight, after each black eye, would carefully try to patch Iona up, carefully dabbling some concoction or another on her. Lux kept insisting she wanted to be a [Mage], but Iona couldn’t see it. Lux was 100% becoming a [Healer], or she’d eat her hat.

Why oh why couldn’t Lux be more sociable? She annoyed people by just ignoring them, not really caring for them or wanting to be around them. Other people said something was "off" about Lux, and tried to shun her, cast her out of their social circle. The designated punching bag. Without her, without Iona, she’d be all alone in the world.

It made Iona worry over her, gave her a rare, well, not sleepless night, but a few minutes of worry at night. What would ever happen to Lux if something happened to Iona?

It drove Iona. It made Iona want to be stronger, be able to protect Lux. Nobody else would do it after all.

Two skill slots left. Iona hesitated a moment, then decided to listen to the wild old priestess the town had, that learning and education were the most important things. Any other adult telling her and Iona would probably bristle, and deliberately not pick it. The old priestess, looking like she’d been alive two hundred years, who always had a kind word, an ear for Iona’s problems, and always had stories about the gods and goddesses? Iona listened to her in a way she didn’t listen to anyone else. Stories about Lunaris and Selene were her favorites, but Iona wasn’t picky – any story was a good story.

She was starting to get a sneaking suspicion that her parents were feeding lessons to the priestess for her to tell Iona, but, well… Iona hadn’t quite fully made that connection yet.

The long and short of it was, [Education] was the 7th general skill Iona took, and then she paused, as they were nearing the entrance of the mine. This was the last skill, and suddenly the skill restriction mattered.

[Prayer] was on the list, but who needed a skill to talk with the gods? They were easy to chat with! Iona did it all the time. Nah, it was like some of the adults said. Some skills weren’t very good, because you could just do them without the skill.

Iona skipped on [Prayer].

“Moon goddesses! I didn’t take [Prayer]. Hope you’re not mad! I’ll still pray to you anyways.” Iona shot a quick apology off.

The entrance of the old mine had a stone monument in front of it, an ancient claim by the Empire of Remus to the mine.

Even the dust of the Empire was gone by now, only a few scant historical records, and the occasional monument and grave to rob left marking the existence of humanity’s first civilization. The troll [Jarl] ruled the lands now, almost entirely disconnected from Remus.

Iona didn’t bother with any of that. She longed for the days of the Remus Empire, where the stories said there were no nobles, no jarls, nobody with that type of privilege, no Immortals who could and did crush peasants under their boot.

Trolls were strange. They were technically Immortal, which usually meant that Lithos would be considered an Immortal country. However, a combination of their curse being so harsh, there being so few of them, and the vast majority of the Lithos peasantry being mortal, along with the country’s geographical location, made Lithos firmly a mortal country.

The local [Jarl]’s crushing boot on all of their necks already had the young Iona boiling in rage at Immortals and nobility.

"Let’s go!" Iona said, eagerly pulling Lux into the mine with her.

Kids would be kids, and Iona and Lux loved to explore the nooks and crannies of the world around them, as limited as it was.